Box Score DENVER - Metro State suffered its first loss of the season in its home opener, falling 2-1 in overtime against Texas A&M International on Friday afternoon.  The Roadrunners dropped to 2-1 on the season, while Texas A&M International improved to 1-1.

Mark Herschberger scored the first goal for the Roadrunners at the 35:03 mark after stealing the ball at mid-field and then dribbled past several defenders and the goalie in route to scoring his second goal of the season.

The score remained 1-0 for Metro at halftime, however the Dustdevils turned up the pressure in the second half, outshooting the Roadrunners 12-2 in the half.  The Dustdevils' increased pressure paid off as they evened the score up at 1-1 in the 69th minute when Eduardo Gonzalez scored on a shot from the top of the box which came off a corner kick from Juan Narvaez.  It was his first goal of the season.

The second half became chippy as the fouls and yellow cards started to pile up for both teams.  In the second half alone, six of the eight total yellow cards and two red cards were issued for both teams combined.  For Metro State, Kevin Pocalyko (Longmont, Colo./Longmont H.S.), Jeremy Brooks (Phoenix/Horizon H.S.), and Andy Lopez (Phoenix/La Joya H.S.) picked up yellow cards, while Elkin Marin-Tobar, Joan Vallejo, Jovany Macias, and the team bench picked up yellow cards.  Joan Vallejo and the team bench both picked up a second yellow card to have them both sent off with Vallejo being sent off in the 87th minute.   In the end, Metro State ended up with 22 fouls given up while the Dustdevils gave up 13 of their own fouls.

The score remained tied at the end of the second period forcing the game into overtime.  The first overtime period passed with both teams implementing a defensive strategy as only a few shots were taken by both sides.  Then in the second overtime, the game started becoming more open as counter-attacks started becoming more frequent.  Texas A&M International ended up capitalizing on this as Diego Manzano-Cano stole the ball and passed it ahead to Jovany Macias who was able to put it past Metro state goalie Shailer Thomas (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington H.S.) at the 103:12 mark to end the game. 

Jesus Cisneros was credited with the win for Texas A&M International as the goalie and ended the game with four saves.  Shailer Thomas (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington H.S.) picked up the loss for the Roadrunners however, had six saves to his name.  Texas A&M International ended up with a 21-9 advantage in shots as well as a 9-2 advantage in corner kicks. 

Metro State will be back in action tomorrow as they host St. Martins (Wash.) at 3:30.  Texas A&M International will travel to Golden to take on Colorado School of Mines at noon on Sunday.